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Took this in the peak district at sunset last autumn. Got given little fiji digital camera and decided to have a go at this photography malarky. Edited it bit - crop and tweaked the colour - is that cheating?

Interesting colour variation of reds pinks purples. Too much sky too white. Would have cropped close to rock formation leaving a sliver of sky and cropped right hand rocks till the upper one looks like a nose/.

post editing is what photographers have always done using dark room techniques so keep on experimanting if you enjoy it

That thing over the rocks in the upper left is a flare spot. 'Flare' in photography refers to extraneous light that's recorded on the image, but that isn't needed to present the scene. In other words, light reflected from the rocks, light from the sky etc all are necessary to make an image of the rocks and sky. But depending on the position of a light source like the sun, extraneous light can end up getting in. It has to do with lens constuction etc, and is over my head.

Looks to me like the sun is just to the left of the image, maybe low in the sky, like morning or later afternoon. It can be eliminated by moving so that the relationship angles between you, the object of the photo, and the sun, are different.

Very nice, id have personally wanted a little less exposure of the sky, but i can see that's not necessarily possible. Photoshop it

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I think the sky is absolutely fine. I find the clipped highlight on the distant moored boat on the left a bit distracting but would leave it be. However the whole picture needs to be rotated anti-clockwise by about 3 degrees. Tis a good picture.

deffo no expert here but for me the signs are a bit distracting, i would be tempted to remove them. the eye would then be nicely led up the pathway without any distractions. I would also try to do a small crop to remove the stones at the very bottom so it starts of smooth and do a bit of a graduated filter on the sky.

other than that though I like it. I love to see buildings etc and the contrast of the curves in the foreground with the angled building in the background works for me

ok, my 2 cents: there's a lot of potential for texture and pattern there but the photo doesn't really make use of it. Maybe it's the camera itself, but also the angle, the lighting, and so on. I'm left wanting to see it look more alive, with more depth, variation in tone, and more of a contrast between the shapes of building, road, sky,and shadows.

Why is this image so crap? I wanted an image for this months competition which is entitled "Pet Hates" and ironing is a pet hate for me so I figured an image of ironing would be good for it. I did try to have visible steam rising from the iron but against that light background the steam did not show in the resulting image. I think the image does show "ironing" but I just find it such a boring image! what do you think?

Why is this image so crap? I wanted an image for this months competition which is entitled "Pet Hates" and ironing is a pet hate for me

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Preach it!

so I figured an image of ironing would be good for it. I did try to have visible steam rising from the iron but against that light background the steam did not show in the resulting image. I think the image does show "ironing" but I just find it such a boring image! what do you think?

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Try placing the clothes and the iron further apart, so the picture is divided into distinct thirds. Also, the front of the clothes are out of focus. There's an issue of balance too: the pile of clothes is small and the iron is tall. Try having the whole pile of clothes in the picture, and making the pile taller. I'm not sure but also the iron comes across as cold, clean, and elegant, whereas the clothes exude a warmth by not being folded or stacked to military correctness.This creates a contrast. I wonder if having the clothes stacked as if they were in a shop might work better? Or, for the more homely warmth, hark back to the distinct thirds and add a cup or mug of tea or something.

Hiya Quartz interesting what you say, I guess I just don't find any of the objects aesthetically pleasing so the image is somehow compromised immediately by that. And I find the red shirt at image bottom under the iron, which I specifically put in to brighten the image, a cheap appeal to populism

Took this one today with my new/old Canon SX40HS. Then a bit of tweaking in Gimp. Bearing in mind I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to photography (though I have been boning up by watching loads of YT videos), what do you think?

Took this one today with my new/old Canon SX40HS. Then a bit of tweaking in Gimp. Bearing in mind I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to photography (though I have been boning up by watching loads of YT videos), what do you think?

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You've caught the moment really well, but it might have been a bit nicer if there had been more back-light behind the water drop. And I don't know if you did this, but a tip for this type of photograph is to add a bit of guar gum, glycerine or agar agar to the water to thicken it slightly. Lot's of info on this online.

Here's one of my grand-daughter, haven't done any tinkering apart from cropping it a bit. Any tips on some jiggery pokery in Aperture or similar? Or should I just leave it as is?

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A lovely photo. Perhaps it's the compression but the division between the ears of the hat and the background is indistinct. Scrolling the picture makes me think that the bowl bottom right is an issue - the picture might be better off without it as it interferes with the whole background going into shade.

You've caught the moment really well, but it might have been a bit nicer if there had been more back-light behind the water drop. And I don't know if you did this, but a tip for this type of photograph is to add a bit of guar gum, glycerine or agar agar to the water to thicken it slightly. Lot's of info on this online.

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Thanks for the tips.

I came across a video or two while browsing photography videos where a guy showed you how to take this kind of photo. It looked cool, and relatively simple to do, so I gave it a go. I don't have some of the equipment he used, so had to improvise. I actually did it in in my back garden, using water dripping from our outside tap into one of my mum's black baking trays, she has just bought D), filled with water. I don't have a proper tripod, just a small bendy table one, so was limited in placement of the camera, and don't have an external flash, so had to use the one on the camera. After that it was just a case of putting the camera on continuous mode, and firing off a bunch of shots as the water was dripping, selecting the best one, then cropping it, adding colour, and vollah!

A lovely photo. Perhaps it's the compression but the division between the ears of the hat and the background is indistinct. Scrolling the picture makes me think that the bowl bottom right is an issue - the picture might be better off without it as it interferes with the whole background going into shade.

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Cheers for the reply! Some good points you make there, I never even considered how the ears would look against that background nor the presence of the bowl! Deffo things I'll look out for the future when framing up a shot though so thanks.

Ok so I'm a complete amateur in photography. Only got my DSLR 5 months ago and these shots are with my new 50mm lens. I want to get into street photography and these three short are my first real attempts-they are of course edited in Elements.

I'd be interested in your honest views-particularly around composition.

Ok so I'm a complete amateur in photography. Only got my DSLR 5 months ago and these shots are with my new 50mm lens. I want to get into street photography and these three short are my first real attempts-they are of course edited in Elements.

I'd be interested in your honest views-particularly around composition.

A lovely scene. Good depth of field, the thirds work, catching the waves breaking is a very nice touch. Perhaps you could crop it less on the right-hand side? Look at the woman's back top-right and compare the amount of space to the border with the dog bottom-left. But the picture lacks a focus: what or who is the subject of this photo?

This was me messing around because I havent figured out how to airbrush out parts of the photo. The focal point here was the two elderly gentlemen but there was a lot in the background I could've erased if I knew how. I found this depth of field function and messed around with this-this was the result.

A lovely scene. Good depth of field, the thirds work, catching the waves breaking is a very nice touch. Perhaps you could crop it less on the right-hand side? Look at the woman's back top-right and compare the amount of space to the border with the dog bottom-left. But the picture lacks a focus: what or who is the subject of this photo?

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OK on the croppping-I cropped that far back because there was someone bringing in a boat in on the landing jetty. It didnt seem to sit right with the rest of the scene-but I hear what you're saying...maybe less crop could've worked better.

Re: focus. Does a picture that is trying to capture the whole scene need a focus? I ask because I genuinely don't know. I was looking to capture the impromptu nature of the group of people using a landing jetty to enjoy the sea-as opposed to having one stand out point of focus.

I'd be interested in your honest views-particularly around composition.

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For The Old Lady & Dogs I'd be inclined to crop it tighter, and as Quartz says, tweak the shadows to bring out some of the detail to make the black dog more visible. Also, I want to know what the lady and dogs are staring at so I'd have tried to include more to the left of the image. It's always hard suggesting things for this type of photograph as you usually have only a couple of seconds to get the shot, but if you'd moved half a step to the left you might have been able to lose the car in the top left-hand corner. Also it's a shame that the dog in the foreground has its paw cut off. Maybe I'd have done something like this.

I've cropped much tighter top and right and touched out the car top left. But I'd still like to see more on the left-hand side.

If you want to see some really good examples of street photography on Urban, have a look at Johnny Canuck3's photos.

Funny enough I wanted to get a bit more square on but she was clocking me looking at her and I didn't want her getting upset. She was looking for some friends and I agree on the car. Once I've got to grips with photoshop I'll work on this one again. Thanks for the feedback.